CUTTING SCRAPS, PART 2

Well, this is cutting scraps again, but with a difference.  This morning I cut 28 light and 28 dark 4" x 8" pieces from odds 'n ends out of the stash.  A lot of it came from the quilt I made a while ago for DD#2 and her husband.  I've forgotten the name of that quilt, but here's the photo:

These were just the right colours for the pinwheel blocks.

                          

But this time, instead of tossing the scraps into that drawer, I dealt with them immediately.  I cut the 4" x 8s" from a strip and then, if there was not a lot of fabric left (and quite often there wasn't) I immediately cut the remnant into useable squares.

They went into the appropriate piles on the pressing table.  

Later in the day I emptied the drawer of the mess of scraps left, placing them in a tray for cutting later this week, and set the separate piles of 2", 2 1/2" etc. squares neatly into the drawer and put them away.

So lovely!  So neat and organized!  This just delights me.

Half of the pinwheel blocks are made.  The other half are ready to go, just in case the weather is as cold and blustery tomorrow as it was today.  My walking partner phoned around noon and we both agreed, "It is NOT a day to be outside!"

COOKIES

When the kids were little I baked oodles of cookies.  Each year before we went camping I prepared a few bread bags full of cookies to take along for snacks.  Jim is fond of chocolate chip cookies and I've been buying them, a dozen for $4.99.  I decided to start baking cookies again, and this evening I made a batch of 38 chocolate chip cookies.  They turned out very well!

I figure we got three dozen for the price of one dozen from the store.  And they are good!

SCRAPS

I got up around 2:45 a.m.--not an unusual occurrence for me.  By 3 a.m. I was in my sewing room, thinking I'd finish the last two 4 by 4's that I started over the weekend.  That would make the 28 blocks of 4 x 4's that I need for a lap quilt I'm working on.  I pulled out a scrap drawer looking for some pieces of material for the pinwheels that come next for that quilt.  Here's what was in the drawer:

It's one of those see through drawers that are stackable.  When I set up my sewing room here I bought a 4' x 8' sheet of melamine and had the lumber yard cut it into two 2' x 7' pieces.  One is set up on six of these drawers, three to a side, and that's my sewing table.  Pretty much the right height.  The other is the cutting table, set up on three of the big drawers with two smaller drawers on top, and under the other side are four medium drawers with two smaller drawer on top.  You can see the set up in this photo:

                         

The bottom drawer held "orphan blocks" which I gave away last week.  The empty space above it is where the scrap drawer was.  Above the empty space is the highest large drawer, another big drawer full of batik pieces.  One smaller drawer above that holds a variety of scotch tapes, and the smaller drawer on the right holds circular knitting needles.  To the right of the drawers is a stack of boxes that hold trimmed scraps: 2", 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2", and 4"+.  The blue containers in front of the boxes (there are two) hold dark trimmed scraps, one for 2 1/2" and one for 3", and the white containers (also two) hold light trimmed scraps, also one for 2 1/2" and one for 3".  These are ready to be made into a "Split Nine Patch".  That's not the whole of the scraps I have.  In the closet is a very large zippered bag full of unsorted scraps.  These are remnants from cutting out quilts.  It's amazing how they pile up.

I found only three scraps big enough for pinwheels, but I started sorting and cutting scraps into useable sizes.  That's how I spent my whole day, from 3 a.m. to 1 p.m., with breaks for breakfast and coffee time.  Here's the result.  You can't really see how nice and tall these stacks are.  Most are cut squares, but there are also some stacks of strips in each size.

It wasn't what I had planned to do today, but once I started I got in the swing of it and was determined to finish the whole drawerful.

It didn't happen!  This is what's left, and it actually looks worse than it is, because the photo was taken looking down at the drawer.  Tomorrow morning I'll be able to finish.

Most of Saturday's snow has melted.  Because it came down sideways, we don't really know how much we got.  The whole week is supposed to be cold and rainy, snowy.  Good quilting weather!

PLAYING WITH FABRIC

It snowed all day from about 3 a.m. until around 6 p.m.  It was dark, windy and snowy.  Obviously not a day for planting potatoes or going for a walk!  So I gave myself permission to start a new quilt.  There were only 15 more Disappearing Four Patch blocks to finish for the quilt I'm working on, but I am bored of making D4P blocks.

I've been wanting to make a lap quilt in the same pattern as the quilt on our bed and that's what I decided to do today.  I took out my 2" square box and picked out many squares.  I need 224 dark 2" squares and 224 light 2" squares.  I had to cut some additional before there were enough.

The first step was to sew a dark and light together:

Next Step: arrange the pairs into four by four blocks.  There are six blocks here, just not sewed together yet.  I'll do them tomorrow.

Here are eight blocks already sewed together, eight out of 14.  The next fourteen have to start with a dark square in the upper left-hand corner.  

 I know I could turn these around a quarter turn and have what I need, but the pressing would be off.  So I'll go through this same process again, and then everything will nest nicely.

The first hour long instalment of "Les Miz" comes on PBS at 9 tonight and I want to watch that, so it's time to leave the sewing machine, get a snack ready and go turn on the t.v.  Actually, I do feel as if there's been plenty of sewing today!

BIGGER, FATTER FLAKES

We're really in business here!  The snow has not only continued to fall, but now we are getting bigger, fatter flakes.  It's building up on the landscape, the balcony, the railing.  I wonder how deep this will become.

Jim had to go out to water the plants in the greenhouses.  That's actually tricky when it's cold and snowy.  The plants need water, but because it isn't sunny and warm they won't take up so much water.  They need some, but don't drown them!

OH, YUCK!!!

They told us this was coming!  Makes it a good weekend for quilting, doesn't it?

TWO BEAUTIFUL LOAVES

This morning's baking: